Separate Small Plane Crashes Kill 9

JASPER, Ala. – A small plane crashed Sunday morning shortly after takeoff from the Walker County Airport in Alabama, killing four people.

The victims were Jasper car dealer Bobby Crump, his wife and son, and an Iowa woman, Walker County Sheriff John Mark Tirey said.

The family reportedly was bound for Gulf Shores on the Alabama coast when the plane went down at 7:55 a.m. in a wooded area not far from the airport.

Tirey identified the victims as Bobby Crump, Jan Crump, and Matthew Crump, a University of Alabama student. The fourth passenger, Lauren Brue, 19, of Iowa also attended the University of Alabama.

The airplane was a four-seat, twin-engine Beechcraft BE-55, registered to Crump Nissan Inc. in Jasper, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. FAA records show Bobby Crump has a pilot's license.

Crump owned the auto dealership but sold it several years ago.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to the scene.

In New Mexico, five people died Sunday after the plane they were in crashed shortly after taking off from a small airport, authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the crash.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said the Cessna 206 took off from the Route 66 Airport around 1 p.m. and crashed almost immediately. He said the pilot had not contacted air traffic control.

"We don't know where the plane was coming from and we don't know where it was going," he said.

The plane was registered under a Gilbert, Ariz., address, FAA records showed.

Santa Rosa police Sgt. Lorenzo Mata told Albuquerque station KOB-TV that when he arrived at the scene, the aircraft was engulfed in flames. Mata said he grabbed a fire extinguisher, but the fire "was too intense."